AYTON SCHOOL

Staff
Go to:
Contents
Page one
Page two
Page three
Page four
Page five

Reproduced from the AOSA Annual Report of 1905

George Dixon
Born at Staindrop, 1812 - died at Great Ayton, 1904

Go to:
Archive Contents

Buildings
Grounds
Learning
Prospectus
Staff
Sport
People
Form & School
Photos
School Life
Events
Reminiscences
Countryside

Homepage

Death has removed many whose names and faces are well remembered in connection with the School, and in the fullness of time He claimed our dear Friend George Dixon. His warfare was accomplished; he remained to see the work to which he had devoted, with ceaseless attention, the best years of his strenuous life, growing and flourishing. The seed which he had planted had under God's care so thriven in his own lifetime that he was able to see a development unsuspected but none the less pleasing.

The name of George Dixon, is, like those of Jonathan Backhouse and Thomas Richardson, and other Quaker worthies, indissolubly linked with the history of Ayton School. Jonathan Backhouse saw with concern that the children of those connected with the Society of Friends in the North of England were drawing away from the Society instead of towards it. The scheme grew in his mind to establish such a school as had been already formed at Penketh and Rawdon, wherein such children might be suitably educated. Thomas Richardson set all financial difficulties to rest by his generous offer of a site and by his donation.

George Dixon was the chosen man to superintend the new school. His early years had been passed in farming. This was in the future to stand him in good stead. After his marriage with Alice Swinburn he had developed and cultivated a taste for teaching, and had had six years' practice at Darlington and Shildon. In him the founders saw and chose a man who would carry out their designs in the spirit as in the letter. Accordingly George Dixon visited Brookfield, Penketh and Rawdon, and reported on the conditions of the life and work which he found there.

On a basis similar to that on which these institutions were founded Ayton School was opened in 1841 with George and Alice Dixon as Master and Mistress respectively.

It is not our purpose here to trace the history of the School. We are not concerned with its steady improvement, with its gradual alteration as its needs grew more varied, with its appeal to a wider community, with its development in touch with modern educational ideas. But we are concerned with the driving force behind and the guiding hand.

Until 185? George Dixon laboured alone as master. He found his work, though hard, congenial and he adapted himself to his conditions. In 1857 his son Ralph assisted him in teaching, thus leaving him more freedom for administrative work.

In 1864 he resigned his position as Superintendent, which he had so long held with conspicuous. success, for he felt it laid upon him to visit and help the freed slaves in the United States. Of his labours there we cannot speak, but they were carried out with that same unswerving fidelity to a lofty ideal which had characterised his work at Ayton.

On his return from the States he settled once again at Ayton, and remained constantly in close touch with the School. To the end he showed the liveliest interest in all concerning the School, and no one could have fostered with a more loving care the branches to which he was devoted No trouble was too great for him to take; no detail was too small to see to.

His interest with regard to the Scholars manifested itself chiefly in two directions: Temperance and Natural History. 

He was an enthusiastic temperance worker, supporting the cause of total abstinence with a strenuous advocacy by precept and example. He delighted in supplying literature on the question, in stimulating interest, in obtaining pledges, in forwarding the cause he had so much at heart in any way. Many Old Scholars look back with heartfelt thankfulness to his lessons which have so influenced their lives for good.

His domain in Natural History was wide, but perhaps his keenest interest was in Botany. His early outdoor training had instilled in him a great love for plant life as indeed it had for all outdoor pursuits. He knew the plants in the neighbourhood thoroughly and was constantly at hand ready and anxious to help those scholars who were interested in his favourite occupation. Besides lectures and verbal assistance he contrived object lessons to both boys and girls by keeping constantly before them the flowers and plants as they flourished from January to .December.

In a record, brief and incomplete as this must necessarily be, we can only touch on the salient points of his life and character. Those who knew him will ever remember his upright straightforwardness, his unswerving purpose, his instinct for the right in word and deed, his love for his work, his capacity, his vigour, his active mind set in an active body, his firm, almost severe will, his resolute devotion to duty, which to him, inspired by a higher will than his, was no longer Duty but Service. In serving man he served his God.

Return to Staff - Page one
Return to Staff - Biography, Tributes, and Anecdotes contents

Go to: Archive Contents || Buildings | Grounds | Learning | Prospectus | Staff | Sport
People | Form Photos | School Life | Events | Reminiscences | Countryside

Homepage